Dear Families
We have continued to be impressed with our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they exhibit in sessions – and specific praise for G30 who have made such a fantastic start in the way that they are forming and strengthening great habits of work and learning in class.
G30 students determining important events to add to a timeline of The Industrial Revolution
Guiding Questions
This week immersion came to the end for all year groups and after lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G28, G29 and G30 enjoyed the big reveal to find out their expedition guiding questions.
GQs (guiding questions) are a crucial part of the anatomy of an expedition.
GQs influence, shape and act as a reference point for student learning. GQs provoke thinking and deepen learning throughout the 12 week expedition and allow students to be engaged in authentic and purposeful work which makes connections between different subject areas and disciplines. During the course of a learning expedition, our children experience a range of case studies, with challenging texts which deepen their understanding and help them to develop an answer to the rich GQ for the expedition.
G30
Our G30 students’ first expedition is called ‘From the Ground Up’ and our students will be studying the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North East England owe to the miners?’. Case studies will involve the Industrial Revolution, Pit Disasters including Felling 1812, the growth and decline of local collieries and the 1984 Miners; Strike. Their final product will be a collection of folk songs which honour the stories of members of the mining community in the North East – students will interview these experts and put their stories to music, as well as a permanent display in St Mary’s Church in Heworth to honour those that lost their lives beneath our school in an explosion at Felling Colliery in 1812. The presentation of learning for this expedition will take place at St Mary’s Church on the evening of Monday 18th December.
G29
Our G29 students are now well underway with their new expedition, Being Human. The guiding question for this expedition is ‘What does it mean to be Human?’.
There are three case studies for this expedition each with their own question: What is a human?; What can we learn from how we see differences between humans?; How do humans and humanity grow and develop?
This week G29 students investigated the respiratory organ system with a dissection of the lungs.
The final product for this expedition will be an artwork installation in the QE hospital which promotes organ donation, as well as speeches in answer to the guiding question. These will be shared with you in a presentation of learning for this which will take place in school on the evening of Tuesday 19th December – more details on this soon.
G28
G28 students’ expedition is called ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and has the guiding question ‘How are structures important in helping us to shape our world?’.
Case studies for this expedition will examine the structure of government, the structure of habitations and the structures of the physical world down to the level of the atom.
The final product for this expedition will be a sculpture inspired by brutalist architecture which will be curated in the community, with a dedication to all citizens of our local community in recognition of the challenges they faced, and the support given to one another during the COVID pandemic.
Northern Stage – Cultural fieldwork
On Thursday our G28 students visited the Northern Stage Theatre to see the critically acclaimed theatre performance of ‘ I, Daniel Blake’. This was a very powerful and moving experience for staff and students alike as the play explored the realities of life for people living in our area and how systems that are supposed to support people can in fact let them down.
I was delighted to receive an email from a member of the audience on Friday morning which read:
Yesterday I attended a performance of I, Daniel Blake at the Northern Stage in Newcastle. Sitting in front of me were two rows of pupils from your school aged 13-15!
I just wanted to compliment all of the young people – they were beautifully behaved and thoroughly engaged in the performance. A number of them were moved to tears and their friends and teaching staff were just so supportive and caring in their attitude towards each other – it really was lovely to see.
Young people so often get a bad press these days, so I just wanted to take the opportunity to Buck the trend and share with you what a delight I thought your young people were and total respect to your school for choosing this performance for them the themes of which I’m sure may have resonated for some, given the current cost of living crisis.
A beautiful and important email, as we say to our students at XPG – we are judged by the quality of our work and the quality of our characters.
The provisional date for G28’s presentation of learning is the evening of Thursday 14th December – more details to follow.
Our week ahead
G28 students (Year 9) – Byker Wall Fieldwork, Monday 18th September
As part of their G28 expedition “Another Brick in the Wall’, our students will be taking part in a Human and Art fieldwork to Byker Wall on Monday 18th September.
See our website post for full details.
G29 students (Year 8)
On Wednesday, our students will work with their first expert for their ‘Being Human’ expedition. Reverend Lucy will give her view on what the Bible tells us about the sanctity of human life – students will discuss their GQ with a range of experts during the expedition to help them to develop their own answer which will be part of their speech. Engagement with experts is an important part of our model. Teachers bring experts from the community into the classroom to collaborate with students, teach them skills from their field, and critique their work to professional standards.
G28 students (Year 7) – Beamish Museum, Thursday 21st September
As part of G30’s first expedition ‘From the Ground Up’, students will be taking part in important fieldwork at Beamish Museum in County Durham on Thursday this week. This is their first fieldwork and we will stress the importance of being ambassadors for our school. For more details please see Mrs Ross’ post here.
PE sessions this week
Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit (see website post). We expect students to change into their appropriate PE kit, and not wear the same clothes they wear in school. Similarly, students must change out of PE kit afterwards, into their normal school clothes.
- G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
- G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- G28 students (Year 9) have PE on Tuesday this week.
There is a change to PE for our G28 students (Year 9) this week due to Fieldwork and Staff Day on Friday. G28 will have one hour of PE this week for each class.
Extended Study
We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday. These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study. Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.
Working with our local Crime Prevention Team
On Thursday, Northumbria Crime Prevention Unit are running a workshop for our Year 9 students around keeping safe online.
As part of our PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) and RSE (relationships education, relationship and sex education) programme we will work closely with local experts to ensure our students get the best advice on how to keep themselves safe.
Staff Development Days
We have staff days each term at XP so that our teachers can collaborate across the Trust to create and deliver the high quality curriculum that our students study. These are shown in blue on our calendar
This week and next sees the first of our staff days where students are not expected to be in school.
- Friday 22nd September – Staff Development Day
- Monday 25th September – Staff Development Day
On staff days our students do not attend school and there is no expectation that they complete work beyond their regularly set extended study (homework). Students will find this work on Google classroom.
Students are expected back to school on Tuesday 26th September by 8:25am at the latest.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Thank you as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.
Julie Mosley